The Kedara Kalpa is a relatively little-known Shaiva text; and only slightly better known than it are the two dispersed series of paintings to which this study is devoted. But both raise questions that are at once elegant and deeply engaging. Ostensibly, they treat of a journey by five seekers who set out to reach the realm of the great god, Shiva – walking barefoot through icy mountains and deep ravines, frozen rivers and moon-like rocks, running on the way into temptations and dangers the like of which no man before them had encountered – and, in the end, succeed. But as one goes through the narrative, the text visualized with brilliance sometimes by members of a talented family of Pahari painters, one begins to wonder. Is this a parable of sorts? Or the description of a long, unending dream from which one never wakes? Or, one wakes up like those five seekers and then, at the very next moment, slips back into that real / unreal world again? Is there something that hides behind all that one sees? Is this journey real, or is it only in the mind?
It is for each reader to decide, the authors appear to say.
B.N. Goswamy, distinguished art historian, is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Panjab University, Chandigarh. His work covers a wide range and is regarded, especially in the area of Indian painting, as having influenced much thinking. He has been the recipient of many honours, including the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, the Rietberg Award, the Padma Shri (1998) and the Padma Bhushan (2008) from the President of India. Professor Goswamy has taught, as Visiting Professor, at several universities across the world, among them the Universities of Pennsylvania, Heidelberg, California (at Berkeley and Los Angeles), Texas (at Austin), Zurich, and the ETH (Federal University) at Zurich.
Professor Goswamy has written extensively. Among the best known of his many publications are Pahari Painting: The Family as the Basis of Style (Marg, Bombay, 1968); Essence of Indian Art (San Francisco, 1986); Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India (with E. Fischer; Zurich, 1992); Nainsukh of Guler: A great Indian Painter from a small Hill State (Zurich, 1997); Piety and Splendour: Sikh Heritage in Art (New Delhi, 2000); Domains of Wonder: Selected Masterworks of Indian Painting from the Edwin Binney Collection (with Caron Smith; San Diego, 2005). Professor Goswamy’s most recent works include The Spirit of Indian Painting: Close Encounters with 101 Great Works, published by Penguin/Allen Lane, 2014; Manaku of Guler: Another great Painter from a small Hill State (Zurich and Delhi, 2017), and The Great Mysore Bhagavata (San Diego and Delhi, 2019).
Eminent historian of Indian culture, and formerly Professor of History at the Panjab University, Chandigarh, Karuna Goswamy had very distinguished writing to her credit. Beginning with her doctoral dissertation, Vaishnavism in the Punjab Hills and Pahari Painting (Chandigarh, 1968), and a portfolio, Wall Paintings of Sujanpur Tira (Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1971), she moved to Glory of the Great Goddess (Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1989), and the challenging theme of Kashmiri Painting: Assimilation and Diffusion: Production and Patronage (Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla/New Delhi, 1998). The Dussehra of Kulu: History and Analysis of a Cultural Phenomenon (Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla/New Delhi, 2014) followed, as did Diliparanjani: An 18th century Chronicle from a Hill State (Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 2015).
Professor Goswamy also co-authored the seminal book Wondrous Images: Krishna seen as Shrinath-ji: Pichhwais of the Vallabha Sampradaya (Sarabhai Foundation, Ahmedabad, 2014). The present volume on the Kedara Kalpa series of paintings is based on her research and her identification, for the first time, of the ancient text on which the paintings are based.
